X. Feng et al. / Journal of Catalysis 365 (2018) 36–42
37
heterogeneous Brønsted [27] and Lewis acid [28] catalysis.
Recently, Lillerud et al. introduced a ‘‘functionalized modulator”
– a monocarboxylic acid having other functionalized groups –
and exploited post-synthetic ligand exchange for CO2 adsorption
[29]. Therefore, designing functionalized modulators presents a
new opportunity to create highly active and functionalized low-
cost catalysts with less effort.
changed from 30 to 62% over a period of 7 min. The chirality of
the aldol products was analyzed by chiral HPLC (Chiralpak AS-H;
hexane/ethanol, 90:10). Besides acetone also two other substrates
were examined. For these substrates 4-nitrobenzaldehyde (0.3
mmol) and cyclohexanone (3 mmol) or cyclooctanone (3 mmol)
was placed in a 15 mL screwed glass vial and stirred in 1.5 mL sol-
vent at 45 °C for 24 h. The conversion and diastereoselectivity were
determined using the same non-chiral column under equal condi-
In this work, we synthesized three L-proline functionalized
modulated zirconium MOFs denoted as UiO-66, Zr-NDC and UiO-
67 at three different synthesis temperatures and explored their
catalytic activity in diastereoselective aldol addition reactions. In
tions. Enantioselectivities were measured by chiral HPLC (LUXÒ
5
mm Amylose-1, 250x4.6 mm, hexane/iPrOH, 91:9). After the first
run, the catalyst was removed by filtration, repeatedly washed
with acetone and dried at 150 °C under vacuum before reuse in
the subsequent runs.
these Zr-MOFs, L-proline is not only used as a modulator but is also
employed to introduce the chiral active site. Moreover, a system-
atic study was conducted to examine the influence of the temper-
ature on the number of defects and the density of modulator
present in the framework.
3. Results and discussion
3.1. Effect of temperature on the synthesis of
MOFs
L-proline modulated Zr-
2. Experimental details
2.1. General procedures
Three zirconium based MOFs, UiO-66 [32], Zr-NDC [33] and
UiO-67 [34], were synthesized in the presence of -proline as mod-
ulator. Each MOF was synthesized at three different temperatures
(70 °C, 120 °C and 150 °C) to explore the temperature effect on the
density of defects in the resulting framework (Scheme 1). The
L
All chemicals were purchased from Sigma Aldrich, ABCR, TCI
Europe and used without further purification. X-ray powder
diffraction (XRPD) patterns were collected on an ARL X’TRA X-ray
diffractometer operating at 40 kV/40 mA using Cu-K
a radiation
experimentally obtained ratio of L-proline and linker in each Zr-
MOF was calculated by means of 1H NMR analysis by digesting
the sample in a mixture of D2SO4 and DMSO (Figs. S6–S8). Further-
more, the number of defects was calculated using TGA analysis
(Table 1, Figs. 3, S4 and S5) in accordance to Lillerud’s method
[35]. The powder X-ray diffraction patterns of the obtained
(k = 0.15418 nm) and a solid-state detector. Nitrogen adsorption
experiments were carried out at 77 K using a Belsorp-mini II gas
analyzer. Prior to adsorption measurements, the samples were
activated under vacuum at 150 °C for 16 h to remove the adsorbed
solvent. Thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) was performed on a
Netzsch STA 449 F3 Jupiter in a temperature range of 20–600 °C
in air and a heating rate of 5 °C/min. For 1H NMR, the samples were
dissolved in a heated mixture of D2SO4 and [D6] DMSO (1:6). Spec-
tra were recorded on a Bruker 300 MHz ADVANCE spectrometer.
L-proline modulated Zr-MOFs corresponds well with the non-
modulated Zr-MOFs reported in the literature demonstrating that
the crystalline structure is preserved during the modulation
approach (Figs. 1, S1). The nitrogen adsorption analysis confirmed
that the porosities of these materials depend on the densities of
defects and modulator as can be seen from Figs. 2, S2 and S3).
Supplementary data associated with this article can be found, in
2.2. Synthesis of the catalysts
The proline modulated Zr-MOFs were synthesized following the
procedure of Gutov et al. and Marshall et al. [30,31] Briefly,
ZrO2Cl2Á8H2O (485 mg, 1.51 mmol), the dicarboxylic acid
UiO-66-LP-120 and UiO-66-LP-150 (LP = L-proline) exhibited a
similar Langmuir surface area, whereas the Langmuir surface area
of the UiO-66-LP-70 is slightly higher (Table 1). As shown in
Table 1, UiO-66-LP-120 and UiO-66-LP-150 have an equal amount
(251 mg, 1.51 mmol), HCl (0.625 mL, 7.55 mmol) and L-proline
(866 mg, 7.55 mmol) were dissolved in 20 mL DMF in an ultrasonic
bath for 30 min. The resulting mixture was placed in a Teflon-lined
autoclave at 150 °C, 120 °C or 70 °C for 4 days, and successively
cooled to room temperature. The solid was collected by filtration,
subsequently stirred in DMF at 70 °C for 24 h followed by stirring
in methanol for 24 h to remove unreacted linker, modulator and
DMF. The final purified product was dried under vacuum at 65 °C
before use in catalysis.
of missing BDC linkers and a quasi-similar number of L-proline
modulators whereas UiO-66-LP-70 has a higher number of missing
BDC linkers which results into a higher surface area. Furthermore,
one can see an increase of the ratio of modulator and linker with
decreasing synthesis temperature, whereas a similar trend is
observed for the number of missing linkers.
Similarly, a series of Zr-NDC-LP MOFs were obtained at three
different temperatures. Based on the defect analysis, it was found
that Zr-NDC-LP-70 has the largest number of missing NDC linkers
and highest amount of defects (Table 1). As can be seen from
Table 1, the number of missing linkers and ratio of modulator
and linker increased with decreasing temperature which was also
2.3. General procedure for the catalytic reactions
The catalysts (20 mol% regarding the amount of proline groups
with respect to the 4-nitrobenzaldehyde concentration) were
placed in a 15 mL screwed glass vial under vacuum at 150 °C for
16 h. Afterwards, a mixture of 4-nitrobenzaldehyde (0.03 mmol/
mLÀ1), methyl 4-nitrobenzoate (internal standard, 0.022 mmol/
mLÀ1), acetone (50 vol%) and a solvent (50 vol%) were added and
stirred at 20 or 45 °C for 24 h. The conversion and selectivity was
determined by means of HPLC (Shimadzu LC-20AT) having a C18
column equipped with a SPD-M20A UV detector and LC-Solution
software. The HPLC apparatus was operated at a column tempera-
ture of 30 °C by using a gradient method with water (0.1% trifluo-
roacetic acid) and acetonitrile (HPLC grade) as solvents. In this
gradient method, the volumetric percentage of acetonitrile was
Scheme 1. Synthesis of UiO-66 using L-proline as modulator.